Thursday 27 June 2013

#NRL 2013: Thurston and Parker split Game 2 #OriginMOTM Votes as Inglis surges in #NRLTweetPOTY

PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Inglis in pole-position? Plus Origin 2 Votes.
@NRLTweet Player of the Year Leaderboard after Round 15

2013 NRL Premiership

By W D Nicolson - June 28, 2013

With 15 Rounds in the books for 2013, here is a look at the current leaderboard in the The @NRLTweet Player of the Year Awards. Plus we reveal which Queenslanders featured heavily in the Man of the Match Votes from Origin 2.

@NRLTweet Player of the Year Awards Leaderboard after 15 rounds below |


Round 15
Cronk's POTY lead dwindling as Inglis and Thurston close in...

Melbourne's Cooper Cronk still has the lead in the 2013 #NRLTweetPOTY Awards but his QLD team-mates Greg Inglis and Johnathan Thurston are now within striking distance through 15 rounds of the year.

Thurston provided a Man of the Match display in Round 14 to snap North Queensland's horror losing streak, while Inglis was his normal self as Souths beat the Titans in Cairns in the same round. Cronk on the other hand - got a rest against the Knights - so the gap between Cronk and his chasers is just 9 and 10 points respectively.

Shaun Johnson gained 2 votes in the Warriors' win over the Roosters in Round 14, but he dropped to 4th on 32 Votes, one ahead of Todd Carney and Adam Reynolds on 31 votes. Sonny Bill Williams is 7th on 30 votes.

Reynolds picked up all 8 votes in Round 15 - while team-mate John Sutton (9th) received 4 votes - meaning South Sydney now have FOUR players in the Top 11 Vote getters this season. The 4th is Sam Burgess in 11th with 24 votes.

The biggest threat to Inglis is not necessarily the form of Cronk or Thurston - but of Reynolds, Sutton and Burgess - as there just might not be enough votes to go around over the second half of the season.

Then again - you'd say the same thing about Cronk with Cameron Smith (18 votes) and Billy Slater (24 votes)...

But what about Thurston, Johnson and Carney (with Paul Gallen now hurt again) - will their lack of natural threats to points give them a leg up in the battle to win the 4th Annual #NRLTweetPOTY Award?

The current Leaderboard can be found below the Origin 2 Man of the Match Results.

You can follow the Votes live after each game via this Hashtag #NRLTweetPOTY and we publish all the Round Results in each week's Complete Set feature.
Game 2 at Suncorp Stadium
QLD  26 def. NSW 6
Origin Player of the Year - Game 2 Voting

Six Voters took part on Wednesday night during QLD's 26-6 win over NSW at Suncorp Stadium: Ben Hoese, Greg Delaney, Matthew Duncan, Nigel Wilbow, Matt Trodden and Warrick Nicolson.

They Voted with 5 Votes for Man of the Match, 3 for next best, 2 for 3rd best and 1 for 4th best. All games will have this setup and 6 voters, with the player who accumulates the most votes over 3 games - declared Player of the Series.

Corey Parker received 3 sets of Man of the Match Votes, Johnathan Thurston received 2 MOTM votes and the 'official' Man of the Match - Cameron Smith, received only 1 MOTM vote.

When the supporting votes were tallied, Thurston emerged with

GAME 2 VOTES - Follow #OriginMOTM on Gameday for live votes.
Ben Hoese @gunnermcdagget
5 - C Parker, 3 - J Thurston, 2 - A Fifita, 1 - C Cronk.
Greg Delaney @gregdelaney84
5 - C Parker, 3 - J Thurston, 2 - S Thaiday, 1 - C Smith.
Matt Spillane @devonhead
5 - J Thurston, 3 - S Thaiday, 2 - M Scott, 1 - G Inglis.
Nigel Wilbow @parramatters
5 - C Parker, 3 - J Thurston, 2 - C Smith, 1 - S Thaiday.
Matt Vickers @mercurialmattyv
5 - C Smith, 3 - S Thaiday, 2 - A Fifita, 1 - G Inglis.
Warrick Nicolson @nrltweet
5 - J Thurston, 3 - C Parker, 2 - M Scott, 1 - C Cronk.

2013 Origin Leaderboard for Game 2
19 Votes - Johnathan THURSTON, QLD {MOTM Votes O2: 2}
18 Votes - Corey PARKER, QLD {MOTM Votes O2: 3}
9 Votes - Sam THAIDAY, QLD {MOTM Votes O2: None}
8 Votes - Cameron SMITH, QLD {MOTM Votes O2: 1}
4 Votes - Andrew FIFITA, NSW {MOTM Votes O2: None}
4 Votes - Matthew SCOTT, QLD {MOTM Votes O2: None}
2 Votes - Cooper CRONK, QLD {MOTM Votes O2: None}
2 Votes - Greg INGLIS, QLD {MOTM Votes O2: None}

Corey Parker now jumps into outright 2nd behind Luke Lewis on the overall voting leaderboard through two games. He has 22 votes (he picked up 4 in Game 1), trailing Lewis on 26 votes (none in Game 2). Johnathan Thurston is 3rd with 19 Votes in Game 2, while Jarryd Hayne (17 Votes) and Robbie Farah (11 Votes) round out the Top 5.

Cumulative 2013 Origin Leaderboard after Game 2
26 Votes - Luke LEWIS, NSW {MOTM Votes O1: 4}
22 Votes - Corey PARKER, QLD {MOTM Votes O2: 3}
19 Votes - Johnathan THURSTON, QLD {MOTM Votes O2: 2}
17 Votes - Jarryd HAYNE, NSW {MOTM Votes O1: 1}
11 Votes - Robbie FARAH, NSW {MOTM Votes O1: 1}
9 Votes - Sam THAIDAY, QLD {MOTM Votes: None}
8 Votes - Cameron SMITH, QLD {MOTM Votes O2: 1}
4 Votes - Andrew FIFITA, NSW {MOTM Votes: None}
4 Votes - Matthew SCOTT, QLD {MOTM Votes: None}
3 Votes - Greg BIRD, NSW {MOTM Votes: None}
2 Votes - Michael JENNINGS, NSW {MOTM Votes: None}
2 Votes - Paul GALLEN, NSW {MOTM Votes: None}
2 Votes - Cooper CRONK, QLD {MOTM Votes: None}
2 Votes - Greg INGLIS, QLD {MOTM Votes: None}
1 Votes - James MALONEY, NSW {MOTM Votes: None}

How Voting Works...
The way the #NRLTweetPOTY Awards are structured means that if you are the best player on the field you gain a big advantage on the players who are solid every week, but don't always turn a game on its head or win it for their team. That is because the most votes a player can gain in a match is 8 Votes (2 voters per game hand out 4-2-1s), while a player who is only the second or third best on the field can only gain a maximum of 4 votes (if they don't get a single Man of the Match vote).

This way the best players who win games for their team are recognised as much as possible, because after all a team only needs about 12 wins a season to make the Finals - and players that contribute heavily to those victories deserve total recognition, versus players who are solid all year but don't actually shift the balance of power in games and their teams fail to fire on the competition ladder. Because remember - we play to win the game, not just to be competitive.

2013 Leaderboard through 15 Rounds:
44 Votes - Cooper Cronk, MEL {MOTM Rd1-2-6-11}
35 Votes - Greg Inglis, SOU {MOTM R3-8-14}
34 Votes - Johnathan Thurston, NQL {MOTM Rd1-5-14}
34 Votes - Shaun Johnson, WAR {MOTM Rd2-4-8}
31 Votes - Todd Carney, CRO {MOTM Rd9}
31 Votes - Adam Reynolds, SOU {MOTM Rd4-15}
30 Votes - Sonny Bill Williams, SYD {MOTM Rd4}
29 Votes - Jarrod Mullen, NEW {MOTM Rd6}
27 Votes - John Sutton, SOU {MOTM Rd7}
26 Votes - James Graham, CBY {MOTM Rd9-11}
24 Votes - Sam Burgess, SOU {MOTM Rd1}
24 Votes - Robbie Farah, WTG {MOTM Rd3-11}
24 Votes - Andrew Fifita, CRO {MOTM Rd11}
24 Votes - Billy Slater, MEL {MOTM Rd3-4}
24 Votes - Aaron Woods, WTG {MOTM Rd13}

Remember - Man of the Match performances (see below for explanation on how votes are cast) mean more in these Awards than picking up the minor votes regularly because we judge based on a players ability to directly contribute to wins by his team - which really are the basis for that team making the Finals - which is why we play the game.
Note: This is why these Awards are considerably different to the Dally M's where regular 2 and 1 votes are more important than getting 3 a few times a year.
Share your thoughts on the footy by commenting below or replying on Twitter.
The NRL Injury List is updated regularly during each week of the season, making it an invaluable Fantasy and Tipping Tool alongside our Weekly NRL Previews once again.

Remember if you want game-specific Late Mail every week, then check out our Round Previews Every Wednesday and they are updated with all the very latest Late Mail on Friday.
Who will take Ben Barba's mantle as champion in the 2013 @NRLTweet Player of the Year Awards?

The Prestigious Award is under-way for a 4th season in 2013.

Remember you can track all the votes each week after each match in 2013 via the Twitter hashtag #nrltweetpoty